Home Office

So, my office is closing down. Don't worry, I still have a job. But, my office is closing down. When I am in town, I'll be working from home, and when I am out of town, I'll be spending my time down in Los Angeles County working on a large transmission line project.

So, I still have a paycheck, I still have health insurance, and I still have a job. I just won't have an office after the end of this month. There are some up-sides to this. On the one hand, working from home will be pleasant in that I will be able to have my workspace as I wish, without concerns about disturbing coworkers. It'll also be nice to not have to get up, get dressed, and drive to work - starting the day by walking down the hall in my pajamas is a nice idea. On the downside, I do like the structure of having a place to go, and a set number of hours a day when I am supposed to be there. I genuinely like associating with my coworkers, and so to not have daily interaction with them will be a loss. And I tend to be given to over-working anyway, so having the necessity of going home removed may increase my tendency to overwork*. So, it's got it's up-side and it's downside.

The biggest thing about this for me, though, is the fact that over the last three and a half years, I have spent more time in my office than in my home (see the comment about overworking above). To see it going away is, frankly, weird. It would be one thing if it was going away because it was being replaced with a different office, or if it was staying here but I was going on to a different job. But the office is simply going away, and those of us associated with it are becoming independent in our own personal home offices. It's sort of a lonely feeling.

So, anyway, I'm still working, and all is well on that front. It's just a weird feeling to see what has become part of my home going away.






*For example, several years back, a friend of mine needed to get hold of me at 10 PM on a Friday night. Before they called my cell phone or my home phone number, they tried my office, and I answered. When I asked why they called that number first - pointing out that it was, after all, 10:00 on a Friday night - they said that, based on past experience, they felt fairly certain that I was more likely to be at my office than anywhere else at that time.